Such an imaginative capacity encompasses an ability to conceptualize the dynamic interactions of species and communities over time and during changing ecological conditions. This proficiency to envision elements and nutrients contributing to functionally dynamic ecosystems and the evolutionary descent from a common ancestor of a number of interdependent creatures is a necessary skill when examining how living things compete and cooperate. The recognition of both the ecological and the evolutionary genetic character of life brings earthly existence's diversity, symbiosis, and order into sharp relief. An ecological imagination by distinguishing the adaptive genetic potential and biophysical limitations of interdependent life creates a necessary depth to comprehend subtle relations among all creatures and both the living and inorganic conditions of existence.

Karl Mobius, the oyster reef

Hard and soft coral species off of the Florida Keys.

Empirical - evidence from the surrounding world.

"The history of ecology is at last becoming fashionable, . . . The general public has now begun to think of 'the environment' as an important problem in which science is deeply involved. One facet of the history of these sciences is the changing attitude of western civilization to the environment."

Peter J. Bowler, History of the Environmental Sciences, xvi

"Many environmentalists argue that, unless we think of our planet

as a system of interlocking natural processes we may destroy it altogether through our indifference."

 

"trend towards materialism and professional fragmentation. . .

We now have more practical reasons for reintroducing a sense of the
unity of Nature,"

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Elements in an ecological imagination:

Model

Feedback

Nutrient Recycling

Living together

Problem solving

Systemic thinking

Eighteen related bodies of knowledge to synthesize and form into a coherent whole whose totality is greater than the mere sum of its individual parts.

texts | technology | landscape changes